Drone Ship of Drones

China's Zhu Hai Yun drone carrier vessel. © Southern Ocean Laboratory

Reportedly the Zhu Hai Yun has an artificial intelligence computer that makes it capable of autonomous operation. It can also be operated by remote control. I expect it won't be too long before they start equipping cargo ships with the same kind of control systems. Load a ship, program the destination and press the GO button. 

This ship is not a cargo ship. It is designed for research and 'security', and as we all should know, security is just a euphemism for war. What makes this ship potentially dangerous is that it can carry 'dozens of drones'. Any ship can carry 'dozens of drones', shoot, you could load up a rowboat with dozens of small hobby drones. But drones come in all sizes. The larger ones can carry larger payloads and / or more fuel, which means a longer range. Hobby drones have a range of a few miles. Larger drones can travel over 1,000 miles, so this ship can sit way out in the middle of the ocean and launch an attack with dozens of drones on any place within range. So now everyone needs a method to defend against these drones.

A pet eagle or a shotgun might work for taking out hobby size drones, or anything traveling at a relatively slow speed, like under 50 miles per hour, but bigger, faster drones are going to require a more sophisticated weapon to be able to cope with them. The 20mm gatling gun seems more than capable, but it is gawd awful expensive to operate. But hey, we can just print more money, right?

I would like to say 'why can't we all just get along', but our history seems to indicate that we can only get along for a while before the irritations start to mount and the situation escalates to violence. Maybe we were lucky to have some violent, destructive riots, maybe it will keep us from getting involved in another war. Ha. Very funny. Is to laugh.